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EXCHANGE: When giving and receiving become one truth

To give and to receive are one in truth.

I will receive what I am giving now.

-A Course in Miracles

GIVING

If you’ve followed The Glow Effect over the past couple years, you’ve seen us partner 15 women from the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia with 15 rising leaders in Kasaali, Uganda. Together, we created The Glow Effect Center for Women & Girls, which now houses the training of over 50 women, and excels the growth of their cooperative.

We call this program, EXCHANGE. (Formerly “The Glow Exchange.” See a video of the experience HERE).

By experiencing resourcefulness and value – not just being given resources – all of us grew our leadership. From every walk of life, rich to poor, educated to uneducated, we shared our stories of suppression, marginalization, and subjugation, and the courage each of found through it all.

We not only survived the challenges of building a learning center in rural Uganda; we experienced ourselves, some of us for the first time, as leaders. The“Exchange” concept went beyond the giving of charity, but the receiving of growth and the giving of growth right back, so giving and receiving became one truth.

We saw the ripple effect in our communities. Our spouses and partners, children, parents, co-workers, fitness communities, neighbors, town newpapers, elementary school teachers and so on contributed their participation, which shifted how we see women, leadership and growth globally.

RECEIVING

With the success of the program, we asked, “How can we get more people to grow cross-culturally?”

Perhaps you’ve heard of our Give Growth events (previously “EmpowHER”)? You may know that we shake up the traditional speaker panels and instead Featured Leaders facilitate roundtable discussions, personalized for attendees.

What you may not know is that during dinner, we watch a short conversation with our rural partner leaders, and attendees contribute to the conversation.

Below is a video of Featured Leader, Jackline Nanyunja, Director of the Glow Effect Center in Uganda, exchanging with our 2017 Give Growth attendees.

As a result of weaving this global conversation into personal growth, attendees challenge their relationships with the world. Clients, managers, families, and friends all reported a change.

Jackline and the Glow Effect Center team are growing too. From stepping into their leadership, Center members are earning enough income to send their children to school, as well as buy more supplies for the Center. They just bought a second sewing machine! As a generous contribution from the Global Cold Chain Alliance, they have a new water tank and a new low cost, underground cooling system to grow organic food for their community.

In 2017, with our expanded understanding of exchange, we explored how we can bring more of this giving of growth into the world. We attempted to partner with groups in Mexico and Peru, but the plans fell through. And that’s when we found our new partner: READ (Rural Education and Development) Global.

READ Global is a non-profit organization with over 100 community library and resource centers (READ Centers) in rural Asia. They offer programs in financial literacy, dignified work opportunities and leadership development. With 26 years of rural development experience, they’ve excelled in creating profound community impact and scaling it.

TRUTH

Over the next year, the Glow Effect aims to co-create a new women’s empowerment and leadership program with women change-makers from READ’s network of centers across Nepal. When a corporate leadership team signs up for our new team program, IGNITE, they will virtually meet with leaders in rural Nepal to grow their leadership.

Imagine being in your office and spending an hour with leaders in rural developing communities… How would that change your day?

In May, we’ll launch our EXCHANGE program, which will now be part of our individual curriculum. Once glow-getters complete the ASPIRE and LEAD programs, they become part of the Glow Team. EXCHANGE partners these glow-getters with rural Nepal leaders to further hone in on our globabl impact goals. The service-travel program culminates with a 10-day trip to rural Nepal for a co-led Give Growth intensive.

We beyond thrilled to virtually introduce the Glow Community to the READ Nepal leaders at our upcoming Give Growth Events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Orange County!

Stay tuned for the real and raw breakthroughs of our glow-getters and creating cultures that foster feminine leadership!